Custom cabinetry, woodworking and woodturning by Keith Larrett
I was asked to design, build and install a wine rack with stemware moldings to fit in some existing cabinetry. The wine rack was built from alder and stained to match the cabinetry. It was a challenging project as the cabinet opening was smaller than the interior of the cabinet due to the face frame. So the wine rack had to be built in parts and assembled inside the cabinet.
We just recently finished a great collaboration on a kitchen in St Simons Island, GA. The kitchen designer, Annie Martin Francis, of St. Petersburg, FL, completed the design and was sourcing cabinets from a high-quality American factory. However, not all of the customizations she designed were possible in the factory. So, she commissioned us to build a range hood surround, a 111” long island back panel and handle the entire installation. From routing to finish, our additions were a perfect match and integrated seamlessly. The result is a unique and gorgeous kitchen with special custom touches.
We installed this built-in entertainment center today.
The LED lights are dimmable and controlled by a remote.
The center cabinet actually gets two shelves, but in the early morning excitement of loading the trailer, they were somehow forgotten. A bit embarrassing, but a quick return trip after the install and the error was rectified.
So this is some awesome sauce 
ShopBot Tools, Inc, the manufacturer of my CNC Router ran a feature on me and my business on their website!
You can click on the image below to go to the site and read the article.
Yesterday we installed the Murphy Bed. It is built from rustic alder. The bed is a queen size bed. The cabinets on either side of the bed have a hand-carved counter top with LED lights illuminating them.
There are four sets of LED lights, one above each countertop, one above the bed shining down and a fourth set above the cabinetry. All the lights are dimmable and are controlled by a remote with each set on a separate channel so they can be activated independently.
Raising and lowering the bed is very easy, as the spring mechanism balances the weight of the bed panel and mattress.
It was impressive, despite the amount of cabinetry, how much the installation of the Murphy Bed opened up the room.
I installed my latest project yesterday, a study unit. It is built from rustic alder. The desktop is solid alder and has a carved live edge.
The study unit includes LED lighting above and below the cabinets illuminating the desktop and the room. The lighting is dimmable and is controlled by a remote. The desktop includes two low profile pop up power/data outlets. They each have two USB ports and two 110v outlets.
The drawer boxes are solid maple with dovetails and there are four cabinets for hanging file folders. There is also a roll out drawer for the paper shredder. The drawer guides are full extension under mount guides. The door hinges are soft close.
From my client’s initial sketch I designed the project in eCabinets. I was then able to show my client photo realistic renderings for their approval prior to starting the project.
I am building a custom vanity cabinet. The design features a couple pairs of split turned legs either side of each door opening. I thought I would take the opportunity to document the process involved in creating a split turning. Split turnings are typically used in furniture and architectural applications, as decorative elements. The process has other applications in woodturning, including the “Lost Wood Process”.
The Merrimam-Webster dictionary definition is as follows:
a turning (as of a baluster) split vertically and applied decoratively (as to the surface of a chest or cupboard) or used as a spindle in a chairback
Essentially the process involves gluing two pieces of wood together with a piece of paper sandwiched between them. The piece is then mounted on the lathe and turned to the desired shape. Once the turning is complete the paper joint is split using a chisel, the paper literally splits in half, yielding two identical half turnings. A simple process, but there are a couple of important things to watch out for.
The design of the split legs I needed is fairly simple. It is a cone, approximately 32″ long, tapering from 3″ diameter to 1″ diameter. I started with a couple pieces of 8/4 maple, about 6 1/2″ wide and 33″ long. One face was flattened at the jointer. Just as with any glue joint, it is important to have the two mating surfaces flat.
The piece was then ripped in half at the table saw, yielding two pieces of 8/4 maple, each 3 1/4″ x 33″.
The only paper that I have personal experience using is the brown builders/construction paper. It is available from the home improvement retail stores and is typically used as a paint drop or to protect new flooring from damage by subsequent trades. It is a fairly thick paper, probably a little thicker than a brown paper bag. I’ve read that you can use newsprint or a brown paper bag, but I don’t have any experience with that.
In order to have a successful and stress free glue I’ve learnt that you need to get everything prepared in advance. As well as clamps, glue and spreaders, this also involves cutting the paper to size. I also like to fold the paper over the edges of the wood so that it is easier to place in the correct position once the glue is applied.
It is very important to note that you are gluing the paper to both pieces of wood, so you need to apply the glue to both pieces of wood. If you think of it in terms of a sandwich analogy, where the two pieces of wood are the slices of bread, and the paper is the meat in the sandwich, you need to put the mayo (glue) on both slices of bread! 🙂
Once the glue is applied to both pieces of wood, place the paper over one of the pieces …
… then place the other piece of wood on the paper, and clamp together. I like to leave the assembly clamped overnight. The glued up blank now measures approx. 3 1/4″ x 3 1/4″ x 32″.
After removing the clamps, I clean up the ends of the blanks at the miter saw and mark the centers of each blank. Actually, the one center line is already determined by the glue join, I just mark the other line. When placing the blank on the lathe it is very important to position the centers accurately at the head stock and tail stock. The center determined by the glue line is actually more important than the other center line. If the glue line is not placed directly on center, then the two pieces once split will not be identical.
I like to use a steb or safety center at the head stock. This enables me to turn a bit more aggressively with out worrying about damaging the piece if I get a catch.
At the tail stock I use a cup live center. It is VERY important to use a cup center at the tail stock. If you use a cone center then you will split the two pieces apart as you tighten up the tail stock.
The turning on this design was not very complicated. As I mentioned before, it was a straight taper from 3″ diameter to 1″ diameter. However, it can be challenging to achieve a perfectly straight taper. In order to determine some guide points I drew out the leg design life size on a piece of construction paper. I was now able to use this drawing to determine the diameter of the finished leg at five intermediate points evenly spaced along the leg.
Once the piece was turned round, I marked the points along the leg …
… and using a parting tool and a pair of calipers, established the correct diameter at each of those points.
Use a spindle roughing gouge I then turned the leg just a bit bigger than the final diameters.
The final diameter and taper was established using a 1 1/4″ skew chisel.
In order to further smooth and straighten the taper I use the following trick. First, with the lathe running slowly, I draw a pencil spiral down the length of the leg.
I then attach a piece of 120 grit sandpaper to a piece of plywood with some spray adhesive. I run this up and down the leg as it is turning slowly.
Wherever the pencil marks are sanding off indicates a high point. So I am then able to refine those high spots with the skew.
The piece is now sanded smooth.
The moment of truth arrives! Time to split the turning. This is done by placing a sharp chisel directly on the paper glue joint and gently driving it into the joint with a hammer.
It is a little slow to start …
… but once the split is started the two pieces separate very easily. Actually, it is always a bit disconcerting as to how easily they come apart, considering that a short while ago they were spinning rapidly on the lathe!
A couple images of the pair of split turned legs. The paper still needs to be removed. This can be done with sandpaper, although depending on the size of the piece I will often make a shallow pass over the jointer to remove the paper.
In this post I’m going to share my technique for making a wooden collar for a hollow form with a threaded pewter insert. In previous posts I have shown how I cast, turn and thread a pewter collar for a hollow form. I’ve also shown an easy way to cast a texture onto a pewter collar for a hollow form. Aesthetically, the main difference with this collar is that when the finial is screwed into the collar there is no pewter showing, however I am still able to retain the functionality of the threaded pewter. It is a nice way to showcase a special piece of wood on the top of a hollow form.
In this example I am using a small piece of rosewood burl. It is about 3/4″ thick and I have cut it into a rough circle about 2 1/2″ diameter on my bandsaw. With the jaws of my chuck closed I am holding it against the jaws with the live center.
This enables me to round it over and turn a shallow dovetail tenon on the piece.
I then rotate the piece and mount it in the chuck jaws so that I can drill a 1″ hole with a forstener bit to a depth of about 1/2″.
Using a thin shop made parting tool I then cut a groove into the wall of the hole that I have drilled. The idea here is to form a shallow groove to make a mechanical joint for the pewter. The parting tool was made from an old sawzall blade.
Here you can see the groove. It is about 1/8″ deep. I find it easiest to stand on the far side of the lathe when turning this groove.
The piece is then taken to my melting pot and molten pewter is cast into the hole. When the pewter has cooled it is a good idea to wick some thin CA glue into the joint between the pewter and the wood. The groove provides a mechanical joint that prevents the pewter from coming out of the hole. However the forces involved in drilling and threading the pewter are likely to cause the pewter insert to spin in the hole. Applying the CA glue at this point will prevent this from occurring and any CA residue will be turning off later in the process.
The piece is mounted back on the lathe and a 3/4″ hole is drilled through the piece. 
Using a lathe tap holder, the threads are tapped into the pewter. As you can see I forgot to wick the CA glue into the joint between the pewter and the wood. The pewter stayed fixed while I was drilling, but as soon as I started threading it started to rotate. you can clearly see the CA residue on the surface of the wood which I will turn off shortly.
A close up shot of the tap and the threaded insert.
The top surface of the collar is now turned and a seal coat of shellac applied.
A 1/2″ male adapter is now mounted in a pair of long jaws and the collar is turned around and screwed onto the adapter to allow me to finish the underside of the collar.
Another shot showing the collar held on the lathe with the PVC male adapter.
The underside of the collar is turned. A tenon is turned to allow it to be attached to the opening in the hollow form. The bulk of the collar is also reduced, as is the threaded pewter insert, while still leaving some threads to accept the finial.
A shot of the top surface of the finished collar.
A shot of the underside of the finished collar.
I buy my bowl and detail gouges from Thompson Tools. They come unhandled and I have always turned wooden handles for them. I enjoy the process of turning a handle for a tool that I will be using for a number of years. However, as I have started to travel more for demonstrations, I’ve found that it is pretty challenging to pack long handled gouges. So I decided to make some new handles for my bowl and detail gouges.
A couple of years ago I saw Mark St. Ledger demonstrate at the Florida Woodturning Symposium. As well as thoroughly enjoying his demonstration, I remembered the handles he was using on his gouges. I’m not sure what he was using as an insert, but I do remember that the handle was made from PVC pipe. I decided to see if I could make something similar.
I ordered a length of 1 3/8″ aluminum round bar and also brought some 1″ Schedule 40 PVC. I chose the Schedule 40 over the other variety they had in the big box store as the Schedule 40 had thicker walls.
The first step was to cut the aluminum round bar into 2 1/2″ lengths. I did this using a v-block on my bandsaw.
I then mounted the length of aluminum round bar on my lathe using the long jaws of my chuck and drilled it. I find that I get more accurate results if I drill the hole out in increments of about 1/8″ diameter. On this particular insert I needed a hole of 1/2″ diameter. So I first drilled a 3/8″ diameter hole …
… and then drilled the 1/2″ diameter. I also used a bit of oil to lubricate the bit. The hole was drilled all the way through the aluminum round bar.
Without removing the round bar from the long jaws, the next step was to face off the aluminum using a detail gouge.
I then turned a 1 1/2″ long tenon to match the internal diameter of the PVC pipe, approximately 1″.
A test fit to make sure that I had a snug fit and PVC butted square up to the shoulder of the tenon.
I then supported the PVC pipe using a 60 degree live center in the tail stock.
I turned the section of the round bar up to the chuck jaws down to match the external diameter of the PVC pipe.
I then sanded the PVC pipe using 80 grit to get rid of the lettering on the pipe, and then worked my way through the grits ending at 180. This left a surface that felt good, relatively smooth with a bit of texture.
I reversed the round bar in the chuck jaws … 
… and finished turning the nose of the insert.
Moving to the drill press I drilled a hole in the insert. I held the insert steady using a v-groove block while I was drilling.
I then tapped the hole with a 1/4 – 20 thread.
Finally, I mounted the insert back on the lathe and just cleaned up the inside of the hole again.
Completed sanding the insert and a bit of polish. All shiney 🙂
The next step was to make a hardwood plug for the other end of the handle. I chose to make this from African Mahogany, firstly because I wanted to include some wood in the handle, but also because at this stage I was pretty tired of turning aluminum. The steps to make the end plug were exactly the same as for the aluminum insert with the exception of all the drilling and tapping.
Once the hardwood plugs were made I expoxied them and the aluminum inserts into the PVC pipes, and gave the handles a couple coats of matt lacquer. 
Hero shot of the completed set of handles!
The African Mahogany plugs. They look great against the white PVC.
The business end of the handles showing the aluminum inserts with socket set screw.